Wednesday, June 17, 2015

By Eric Sherman

As a follow-up to my last blog post, “What
is the Right Magnet Strength for My Cochlear Implant Headpiece?” I wrote how
finding the right magnet strength is a trial and error process.
Unfortunately, the error part of the process can cause problems that can
prevent you or your child from wearing your processor for a period of
time.

As parents, we need to look for signs our
child’s headpiece magnet may be too strong before there’s an obvious problem,
especially if your child is nonverbal.

Here’s what happened after we accidentally
got my son’s headpieces mixed up and put the wrong magnet strength on the wrong
side of his head. After a day, his head became red and itchy.

My son didn’t say anything, nor did he complain. As
you can see from the photo, the skin is clearly irritated. If not
addressed, this skin irritation might have led to an open sore…keeping my son
from wearing his processor. We changed the magnet strength and left
his headpiece off for the night and fortunately the next morning the skin
looked much better.

Here are some signs we discovered when the
magnet strength was too strong; skin irritation such as redness, swelling,
tenderness at the connection point on the head; behaviors like scratching,
rubbing or frequent removal of headpiece. If you start to see scabbing at
the connection point, you should definitively consider removing the headpiece
for a while until the skin heals. Consult your audiologist about
adjustments to the magnet strength.

Also please note that if there are no
noticeable skin irritations and your child is having issues wearing his/her
headpiece, it could be an indication that other possible problems exist.
Troubleshoot your CI equipment and check with your audiologist about the sound
processor and map. When our son was around 24 months old, he wouldn’t
wear his headpiece. He would deliberately swipe it off his head, clearly
indicating he didn’t want it on. After examining all the equipment,
magnet strength, etc., we made an appointment with the audiologist, who found a
problem with the map which caused the over stimulation.

If you have had an experience with your
cochlear implant headpiece and found other signs that you feel will help other
CI recipients and their families, we invite you to share them here.